Review of Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954) by Nate A — 31 Mar 2016

This review is for all three films in the Samurai trilogy.

This is a sweeping epic detailing the career of (real life) master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. His story has been told in dozens of films, but this is the most famous one (overseas anyway). Moreso than any other Japanese samurai film I've seen, this has a real feeling of a Hollywood epic. Indeed, it is often referred to as the Japanese answer to 'Gone with the Wind' and was tied with 'Seven Samurai' as the most expensive film ever made in Japan at the time.

. It begins in the early days of Musashi as he leaves his village to join the great Battle of Sekigahara (on the losing side). From there, he goes from outlaw to prisoner to samurai. Along with his pursuit of drawing ever closer to perfection, he must deal with the betrayal of his childhood friend, navigate the politics of the newly founded Tokugawa shogunate, fight in duel after duel, and come to terms with his feelings for the love of his life.

Toshiro Mifune in the title role is awesome, and convincingly shows the change between wild dog to cool and collected enlightenment between three films. His foil, Sasaki Kojiro, is a worthy adversary. Cool and charismatic, he is the opposite of Musashi and the final duel between them is a worthy conclusion to the trilogy.

The cinematography is gorgeous, with vibrant colors bringing out the colorfulness of the garb and banners but also the muted natural colors of the wilderness.

If you enjoy films like 'Ben Hur' or 'El Cid', you may want to give this a shot.